UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Four Pennsylvania farm operators joined a Maryland dairy producer and a New Jersey farmer as 2000 Master Farmers at a ceremony held March 6 at the Harrisburg Marriott in Harrisburg, Pa.

Theodore Alter, associate vice president for outreach, director of cooperative extension, and associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences, delivered the keynote address and hosted the event.

The Master Farmer program, now in its 67th year, recognizes farmers from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia for high achievement in farming and community service. The program is sponsored by Pennsylvania Farmer and Maryland Farmer magazines and the cooperative extension systems of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The 2000 Pennsylvania Master Farmers are:

--Duane and June Hertzler, of Perry County.

--Robert Jackson, of Fayette County.

--James Witter, of Franklin County.

Duane Hertzler and his wife, June, started Moo-Echo Farms in 1978, after six years in partnership with Duane's father. The 315-acre dairy operation boasts a 235-cow milking herd that averages more than 20,000 pounds of milk per cow each year. Duane switched his herd to rotational strip grazing in 1994, and now feeds his herd from his owned acreage and 235 rented acres. Before switching to grazing, Duane farmed more than 1,000 acres to feed a 170-cow herd.

Duane and June have four children, Joel, Neil, Becky and Heather. June works full time off the farm as a registered nurse for a juvenile detention center. She also volunteers as librarian for their local church. Duane is a board member of the Pennsylvania Beef Council and the Perry County Farm Preservation Board. He also has served as a board member for Perry County's Agway operation and the Perry County Farm Preservation Board.

Robert Jackson is the third member of his family to be honored as a Master Farmer: his father, Bob, and an uncle both were selected. After earning an associate's degree in agricultural business from Penn State in 1975, Jackson formed a partnership with his father to run the family dairy farm. When his father retired in 1988, Jackson took over the 455-acre Double J Farm near Brownsville, Pa. He grows crops on 335 acres and rents 75 more acres to feed the operation's 125-cow Holstein herd. The herd averages nearly 23,000 pounds of milk per cow each year.

To increase production efficiency, Jackson splits his milking cows into high-producer and low-producer groups, feeding each group special rations to attain peak production. The cows are milked in a double-six parlor and housed in a free-stall facility featuring a stall for every cow.

Jackson and his wife, Joy, keep meticulous production records using a computer to track cow performance. Bob also handles the herd's artificial insemination breeding program. Bob and Joy have four children, Andrea, Amber, Adam and Aaron. The couple served as regional leaders to the Pennsylvania Council of Cooperatives' Young Leader Conference in 1993.

Jackson has served as president of the Fayette County Holstein Association and is a current board member. He also is a board member of the county's Dairy Herd Improvement Association and an alternate delegate for the Dairy Farmers of America. He is a deacon at his local church.

James Witter grew up on a small dairy farm near Shippensburg, Pa. Unenthusiastic about farming as a youngster, he decided to become a dairy farmer after taking a job as a Dairy Herd Improvement Association milk tester and discovering new methods for efficient dairy production. He also met his first wife, Joann, during his rounds as a milk tester.

The couple married in 1958 and began to crop share on Jim's family farm. In 1970, they purchased the farm, but Joann died that same year, leaving Jim as a single parent bringing up six children. Jim married his wife, Miriam, six months later, and the couple have reared Jim's children, Jean, Paul, David, Timothy, Steven and Mark.

Witterdale Farms, a 400-acre dairy operation, employs three of Jim's sons, David, who helps manage the 300-cow milking herd, and Tim and Mark, who help out with fieldwork and milking. The family uses 350 of its owned acres for crops and rents another 250 acres of cropland. The milking herd averages about 18,700 pounds of milk annually.

Jim has maintained community ties by hosting several entertainment events. In 1977 he held a concert in a new slurry facility he was building. In 1995, he built a three-acre corn maze as part of the annual Shippensburg Corn Festival. More than 24,000 visitors walked through the maze's two miles of pathways.

Witter has served on many boards and served as an officer of county farm groups and the area Chamber of Commerce. He also founded the Shippensburg chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Farmers, and still serves as its president.

The 2000 New Jersey Master Farmer:

--Susan Blew, of Pittstown, N.J., operates a 160-acre hog and organic produce operation with her husband, Ted. The couple started Oak Grove Plantation in 1977, adding the hog operation in 1981. The couple markets 95 percent of their specialty produce and a wide range of pork products at New York City's Greenmarket in Union Square, where Susan is known as "the Pepper Queen."

The 2000 Maryland Master Farmer:

--Lewis Riley, of Parsonburg, Md., operates the 550-acre Beaver Run Farms Inc., which produces 120,000 Cornish chickens per year. The farm also markets 500 to 600 hogs per year and produces feeders from a 75-cow beef herd. He started farming his own land in 1958. He served eight years in Maryland's House of Delegates, and five years in the state Senate. He also served a total of six years as deputy secretary and secretary of Maryland's Department of Agriculture.

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EDITORS: For more information about the Mid-Atlantic Master Farmer program, please call John Vogel, editor of Pennsylvania Farmer, at (717) 334-4300.

Contacts: John Wall jtw3@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-865-1068 fax